SPAIN: The area round Valencia and the Costa Blanca is well known for delicious oranges. But this month another kind of orange has disturbed the enjoyment for hundreds of tourists and angered locals and foreigners alike.
Bryan and Catherine Sheeran, Belfast-born landlords of the Ibrox pub in Benidorm and a dozen of their supporters have been fined €6,000 for defying a local government ban on staging their own Orange march on July 12th.
Benidorm police say up to 400 people attended the march, although Mrs Sheeran said the figure was nearer 2,000, many of whom had flown in from Belfast to attend the march. She said: "It was the fourth year we had organised our Orange march. Everyone had a wonderful time."
"It was disgusting," said a long-time resident of the Costa del Sol. "There is enough terrorism in the world without these morons stirring up trouble, particularly only days after so many people lost their lives in London."
Juan Fuentes, the head of Benidorm's municipal police force said: "People have to have permission to hold a demonstration or march, and we didn't authorise the march this year. They went ahead anyway, and when they tried to stop the traffic we broke it up and took their names."
Mrs Etelvina Andreu, the government delegate in the region, was the person who imposed the ban and fined the demonstrators. "They were a very noisy gang, and many of them appeared to be drunk," she said.